


Binary System

by thelonebamf



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Fluff, Implied Relationships, Kid-fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 02:58:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7249291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelonebamf/pseuds/thelonebamf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite all his preparations, it takes a little bit of adjustment for Hal to get used to the small sun that has entered their lives. Just a little Jupiter family fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Binary System

It was raining. Of course it was. How else should the lighting arrive if not in the midst of a turbulent storm? Hal was actually glad for the rain, anything that would make it harder for prying eyes to find their hideout or track the man headed their way. 

 

He checked the supplies they’d brought in earlier that day when they’d discovered Raiden would be reporting back within a few hours. Not much time to prepare, but in some ways Hal wasn’t sure they’d ever be truly ready for the task at hand. 

 

Still, this was something only they could do.

 

Snake stood at the window, opting to let himself get a little wet if it meant he could smoke with Hal clicking his tongue at him and Hal decided to let him be. He found himself wishing he had a vice of his own to partake of. There wasn’t exactly time for an anime binge at the moment.

 

“Hal, stop pacing. You’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” Dave called over his shoulder.

 

Hal made a pained sound in the back of his throat and sat down at his desk, dragging his mouse across the screen with no real aim before standing up and checking the door again.

 

“Can’t help it. Just worried about being underprepared. I mean, I’ve read every resource worth a damn online, done the research but…”

 

“Don’t overthink it.” Snake snubbed out the butt of his cigarette against the wet pavement before stepping back inside.

 

“That’s easy for you to say. I have a nagging suspicion that I’m going to end up being the one-”

 

The knock at the door, three short raps followed by two longer ones interrupted him and he felt the words dry up in his throat.

 

Snake approached the door cautiously as he peered through the peephole and confirmed the identity of the man on the other side before opening the door and ushering him within.

 

“Found the place okay?” He asked.

 

Raiden nodded, expression serious as Hal had ever seen it. “You probably could have stood to go a little deeper underground, can’t be too careful when handling precious cargo.”

 

“So you were able to secure the uh… payload?” Hal approached the other two, eyes fixed firmly on the bundle in Raiden’s arms.

 

Snake rolled his eyes. “You can drop the secret agent stuff now Hal. It’s not like we’re speaking over public channels.” He reached his arms out to accept what Raiden had brought them. “C’mere, son.”

 

“Actually,” Raiden corrected, “It's a girl.”

 

Hal peered down at the child’s face, her eyes closed, tiniest remnants of raindrops stuck to her eyelashes.

 

“So.” He realized they hadn’t decided on a name for the child, and after meeting all of Snake’s dogs he wasn’t sure he was willing to leave it up to the man. “Not ‘Son’ then…”

 

* * *

 

 

“Is it okay for me to admit I’m glad we don’t have to mess with diapers? I was fully expecting diapers to be a big part of it.”

 

Dave shook his head as he folded a number of t-shirts, large, medium and extra extra small with practiced ease. “Believe me, you’re not missing out on anything. Can’t say I’m surprised, I doubt the Patriots had a full nanny staff on hand. Or maybe they did. Who can tell? But I’m sure it was in their best interest to get any of the kids they’d taken to a certain level of self-sufficiency as quickly as possible.”

 

Hal looked over at Sunny who was just sitting on the floor, staring at the blocks he’d given her to play with. Though she’d only been with them a few days, he’d already noticed a number of things that seemed way out of line with what the internet had led him to expect.

 

“She doesn’t play with any of the toys I give her. I mean, she looks at them, and I’m pretty sure she understand what they’re for, the blocks at least, but she doesn’t show any interest in touching them herself.” He chewed at his bottom lip nervously. “Do you think she… I mean, maybe when we removed her from the system we actually… I don’t know… broke her? A ‘shock to the system’? That’s a thing that can happen to kids, right?”

 

“Sure, but… I think you’re going about this the wrong way. Besides, it’s not like we can take her to some kind of shrink for kids, even if we thought it was a good idea.” There was audible displeasure in Dave’s voice. “Maybe it’s okay for her just to watch, for now.” 

 

He found a place on the floor next to the girl and started splaying out the colorful bricks as Hal watched from his desk chair. Though Sunny still showed no sign of taking the blocks in her own hand, she watched intently as Dave locked them together, making a shape that could generously be called a plane. She followed every motion of his hands as he snapped wheels onto its base and rolled it along the ground.

 

“This is Snake, calling Sunny for permission to take-off.”

 

She remained silent, but kept her gaze on his hand as it moved.

 

“Commencing takeoff.”

 

He lifted the toy off the ground, making a few lazy circles near her head, gratified to see he had her rapt attention. 

 

“Coming in for a landing.”

 

Dave went so far as to make a few efforts at engine noises, easy for his naturally low rumble before placing the plane gently in Sunny’s lap. She stared down at it, blinking, still quiet before slowly bringing her hand to cover its wing.

 

“Dave… she…”

 

Dave chuckled once. “Don’t sound so surprised. She’s a smart girl, she just needs a little help in showing it.”

 

* * *

 

 

“You...you’re really good at this.” Hal said, watching Dave bouncing Sunny on one knee as he fumbled through the channels on television.

 

“Good at… what?”

 

“Just…” Hal gestured vaguely at the two of them. “All of this! You look so at ease, like… it’s second nature or something. She comes to you when you call. I… I think she almost said your name the other day.”

 

“She just gurgled ‘da’, Hal. That’s not exactly the same thing.” He peered over at Sunny’s face. “Does he want you to call him Otacon, Sunny? Has he told you what it stands for yet?”

 

Hal shifted uneasily, looking away for a second before speaking again. “I, was actually thinking I’d rather have her call me Hal. Or… Uncle Hal, I guess.”

 

“You sure about that?”

 

“Eh…” He hesitated for a moment. “I thought about it, and… I mean… I want her to feel like she has a home here with us. A… family, such as it is. But I don’t want her to think we’re trying to replace the one she lost. Who knows, maybe there’s someone out there looking for her now. If the day ever comes, I think it’d be easier to leave her “uncle” than…” 

“I think I understand.” Dave frowned slightly. It seemed that Hal was always preparing for this kind of scenario, as though every person who entered his life was fated to leave it without warning.

 

“Sunny,” he said softly, turning his attention back to the girl. “Can you say ‘Snake’?”

 

* * *

 

“We have to hurry. It’s almost seven.”

 

“So?”

 

“Seven is dinner time.”

 

“Hal, she’s not even three, I don’t think she can tell time.”

 

Hal gave a frustrated sigh, adjusting the bags of groceries held in his arms. Their combined weight was easily more than that of the girl Dave was holding, but he’d insisted he carry her anyway.

 

“Everything I read,” he shifted the weight into the crook of his left elbow, “says that this is the age when repetition and habit becomes crucial. They demand a set schedule, and deviating from it can be very upsetting. Dinner at seven. Bath at eight. Bed at eight-thirty. We have to stick to it or…”

 

Dave gave him a sympathetic look but shook his head. “Or what? She’ll throw a tantrum? I’d love to see that. A little kicking and screaming would be a welcome change.” He placed his free hand on Hal’s shoulder as Sunny looked on curiously. “But if the schedule does you good, then we’d better get a move-on.”

* * *

 

 

The video Hal had been watching had ended some time ago, but he didn’t dare reach out to touch the keyboard of his laptop. He stayed absolutely still and kept his breaths shallow, refusing to blink until his eyes grew strained and dry.

 

He could hardly remember the last time he’d been close to a child like this, and certainly not one as small and fragile. E.E. had been young when they’d first met and lived together, but she was four years old, bright-eyed and talkative and had taken a liking to him almost immediately. 

 

It hadn’t been hard to make her smile.

 

But Sunny was so different, younger and more delicate. Though her eyes still held the same bright curiosity that he had long associated with his sister, she was far more reserved and nearly silent beyond the occasional mumbled syllable or peal of laughter when Dave lifted her into the air. And of course, sometimes she cried.

 

Hal tried not to take it personally.

 

He was so focused on keeping quiet and still he hardly noticed when Dave came up behind him.

 

“What’s this Sunny? In the arms of another man? I’d say I was jealous, but I can definitely see the appeal.” He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on the top of Hal’s head.

 

“Erm.” Hal mumbled, cheeks warm. “I… I know it’s after ten but… well she got out of bed somehow and came and found me, made herself right at home on the sofa. She’s never done that before and I didn’t have the heart to take her back. We uh, ate cheerios and watched Voltron.”

 

Dave snorted as he found a space for himself, nudging the sleeping girl slightly until the fell against Hal’s chest. “Those parenting guides say anything about what happens if you expose a baby to robots and nerd stuff?”

 

“I think that damage has already been done.”

 

“Fair enough.” Dave smiled. “So what happened to sticking to the schedule? I thought it was bed at eight-thirty. Now it’s robots at ten?”

 

Hal looked down at Sunny, sleeping peacefully at his side. “Well, ten is a little late but… maybe we can find room for robots earlier in the day.” 

 

“Be careful. Remember what you told me,” Dave warned, raising an eyebrow. “Once you introduce something to them, you gotta be prepared to do it over and over again.”

 

Hal opened his mouth to answer, but stopped at the sudden feeling of a small hand wrapping around his own.

 

“I think… I could handle that.”

**Author's Note:**

> I always struggle with titles. I went with "Binary System" because I thought it was a semi-clever reference to Sunny's upbringing within the Patriot system and Hal's reliance on technology and the internet regarding how to care for her. But in doing a quick google search for the relationship between the planet Jupiter and our sun, there were an awful lot of results for people asking whether or not Jupiter was a "failed star" or could ever become a star, creating a binary system with the sun. So... something something sun-and-Jupiter-cohabiting-in-space? XD


End file.
